Myofascial Pain Syndrome, myofascial trigger points and trigger points in Veterinary Medicine

Abstract

Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS) a is a painful condition related to myofascial trigger points (TP) in skeletal muscle. The aim of this study was to perform a literature review on the etiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of MPS in veterinary medicine. The research sites used for this purpose were: Scientific Electronic Library, PubMed and Medline. The inclusion criteria for the papers were: must be written in English; published between 1990 and 2018; include the following keywords: myofascial pain syndrome veterinary/dog/canine/cat/feline/horse/equine, trigger points veterinary/dog/canine/cat/feline/horse/equine. Through the review, it was observed that veterinary clinical studies are scarce, and the articles found lack information such as MPS description, incidence and specific treatment techniques in dogs and horses, and no studies in cats were found.

Location of Trigger Points in a Group of Police Working Dogs: A Preliminary Study

“…In contrast, the dogs in our sample were healthy, and the TPs detected were thought to reflect their daily physical activities, as previously discussed. The remaining publications addressing the topic were review articles, transposing the findings in humans and horses to other species [ 8 , 16 , 25 ].…”

“…Criteria used for TP diagnosis have not been validated in veterinary patients [ 16 ] and are often extrapolated from human studies [ 17 ]. In one of the few studies examining TP location in small animals [ 9 ], of 48 lame dogs which had not responded to pharmacological treatment, 31 dogs had TPs (82 TPs in total) and 17 had no TPs at all.…”